Month: April 2010

What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know About Editing

by

New self-publishers are often confused about how the editorial process works. They want to know what takes place at each stage of their book’s development.

It seems that if you have a map, even if it’s a sketchy one, it’s easier to understand where you are on the road to getting your book into print. Let’s take a look at the stages through which your book moves.

Keep in mind that the entire editorial process may be long, extending from before the completion of the manuscript through proofreading of the final page proofs. Self-publishers need to understand the whole process so they can hire people with the specific expertise needed to complete their project.

Although publishing houses vary widely in how they implement the editing process, and change has also come over time, this schematic is intended to be a simple and helpful “map” to the journey of your book from manuscript to printed books. 

Manuscript: Developmental Editing

Before you even finish your book, perhaps before it’s more than an outline, a sample and an idea, you may start the editorial process. The first kind of editing you will encounter is developmental editing.

Developmental editing, as the name implies, helps develop the author’s concept, the scope of the book, the intended audience, even the way elements of the book are arranged. The relationship between author and developmental editor is intimate, and their work is something of a collaboration.

It can require a great deal of time, as the author responds to the editor’s suggestions, and may require a good deal of patience and tact, since the editor may be instrumental in helping to shape the final work.

Developmental editing can be assigned to specific editors, or some of these functions may be done by either the author’s agent or an acquisitions editor at a publisher. Self-publishers who make use of this type of editing will hire freelance editors to help with the development of their project.

Manuscript: Copyediting

When the author and developmental editor have finished organizing the manuscript, and the editor considers it complete and ready to take the next step, it will go to a Copyeditor.

Copyediting is accomplished by editors who examine the manuscript line by line, word by word. It takes people who are meticulous, excellent at spotting errors, and who mostly don’t mind working without interference or accolades from the world outside.

Copyeditors have vast knowledge of English vocabulary and usage, command over style resources such as the Chicago Manual of Style or other style guides in use at the publishing house. In reviewing the manuscript, they will be paying attention to and correcting:

  • Punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar
  • Errors in word usage
  • Subject-verb agreement
  • Consistency in treatment of material
  • Adherence to establish standards of style and formatting
  • Accuracy and completeness of citations, references, notes, tables, figures and charts
  • Amgibuity, incorrect statements, lapses in logic, libelous comments, and so on.

In the course of editing the manuscript, most copyeditors will also produce a style sheet for the book listing the correct spellings of any unusual names, the proper format for each element in the manuscript, and any other usage or style guidelines that will be useful to other people reviewing the book farther down the production line.

When the copyeditor has finished her work, the manuscript goes back to the author for clarification of any remaining open questions, and then the changes are input into the manuscript.

Manuscript to Book Page Proofs: Production Editor

The manuscript is next routed to a Production Editor who will be responsible for the entire production process. The tasks of the production editor include:

  • Scheduling the project and tracking its progress
  • Hiring and coordinating the work of the book designers, illustrators, indexers, proofreaders and other professionals needed to complete the book
  • Getting estimates from printers or print brokers for the physical production of the book
  • Making sure the books are properly printed and delivered on time.

Book Page Proofs: Proofreading

The last stage in the editorial process is proofreading the book. This step can be easily overlooked in self-published books, to their detriment. The proofreader is the last guardian of the publisher’s reputation for accuracy and care, the protector of the author’s reputation for diligence, and sometimes the least noticed professional to handle the book in its journey.

Proofreaders examine the book’s complete and final pages for more than typographical errors, although that’s a big part of the proofreading job. In addition they will be on the lookout for:

  • Inconsistent line, word, or page spacing
  • Misnumbered list items and mislabeled captions
  • Improper word breaks
  • Page break problems like widows and orphans
  • Irregularities in the use of the books type fonts
  • Accurate and consistent page headers, footers and page numbers
  • Accuracy and completeness of tables, figures, charts, and graphs
  • Consistent use of abbreviations and acronyms.

The End of the Line

When the proofreader is finished with their work, the book is corrected for the last time. Once the pages are set, the final page proofs can be sent to an indexer, if one is being used on the project, and the book will be ready to go to press.

In brief: Developmental editors help shape the work in progress; Copyeditors correct the language, usage, and consistency of the manuscript; Production editors manage the physical manufacturing of the book, and Proofreaders hunt down and fix any errors that have crept into the book. All are necessary to produce a top-quality book.

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer site. Click the ‘reprint’ link to access a podcast version of this article.

BookBuzzr Interviews Author [and Publetariat founder] April L. Hamilton

by

This interview originally appeared on Bookbuzzr.com.

BookBuzzr recently interviewed April L. Hamilton who is the author of the book ‘The IndieAuthor Guide’ which was ranked fourth among the Top 10 Books of 2009 on BookBuzzr.

 
1. Welcome April. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been writing?
I’ve been writing pretty much since I’ve been old enough to hold a crayon. I dreamed of being an author as a girl, but since that didn’t seem a very practical or clear-cut career path, I pursued other options for making a living. I was a technical writer, then a software engineer and web developer, for many years, and this has turned out to serve me very well now that authors are expected to be web-savvy and develop a platform.
 
2. What has been the highlight of your career to this point?
I think that would have to be reading the first review of my first self-published novel, Snow Ball. I’d published it in Kindle format in an effort to drive more traffic and attention to another novel I’d entered in a contest. The review was very positive, and that’s when I realized it really would be possible for me to reach a readership through self-publishing. My other novel advanced no further than the semifinal round of the contest, but by the time it was eliminated, Snow Ball was doing so well I felt as if I’d already won.
 
3. Can you please tell us about ‘The Indie Author Guide’ and what led to writing it?
The IndieAuthor Guide is a how-to book that aims to be a comprehensive reference to self-publishing and managing a career as a self-published author. It’s the book I wish had been available when I set out to self-publish.
There are a lot of books on the subject of self-publishing, but I found them all to be either too specific, covering just one aspect of self-publishing such as manuscript formatting or book promotion, or too general, lacking in the step-by-step instruction I needed. Many of them are geared to people who want to start a small imprint to publish other authors, and most were too dated, failing to address ebooks and author platform at all. Most service provider sites offer their own user guides and online help files too, but those I had to work with weren’t clear and detailed enough. I found that in the end, I only discovered the numerous “gotchas” and best practices through trial and error, and once I’d done so, I thought it made sense to draw on my experience as a technical writer to document all I’d learned.
 
The book was originally self-published in May of 2008, and at the end of 2009 I signed with Writer’s Digest Books to release an updated and revised edition of the book later this year.
 
4. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced writing it?
The challenges all came before I wrote it, during that trial and error process of self-publishing I mentioned. From all those years as a technical writer and a software engineer, being required to fully document my processes and the applications I developed, I find I have a natural drive to document any new skill or information I learn. At first I was just writing guides to individual steps or aspects of self-publishing and making them available to my fellow authors on my website, but it wasn’t long before I realized I had enough material to write an entire book. So I did just that!
 
5. What according to you are the most rewarding aspects of writing?
I think the best part for me is more about the feedback than it is the writing. There’s nothing so fulfilling as hearing from a formerly-struggling author that something in my book, on my blog or website has solved a problem for them or otherwise made their writing lives easier.


Read the rest of the interview on Bookbuzzr.com.

Is Stephen King "Reverse-Windowing" His New Novella?

by

"Blockade Billy," Stephen King’s Macabre New Novella with a Baseball Backdrop, Available Now in the Kindle Store with Buzz-worthy Publication Details – 5 Weeks Ahead of Hardcover Release 

Ur, Er, Play Ball!

Stephen King has served up a nice fat pitch for Kindle owners to hit out of the park with what appears for now to be the Kindle-only publication of a macabre new novella with a baseball backdrop, and the details of the release — discussed below — are likely to create serious buzz among readers, authors, publishers, and retailers.

 

Kindle owners may remember Mr. King, a novelist who makes his home in Bangor, Maine, but spends many hours each Spring, Summer, and Fall in a pretty good seat at Boston’s Fenway Park. A little over 14 months ago King traveled to New York to appear on stage with Jeff Bezos for the launching event of the Kindle 2 and of Ur, a novella that featured excellent product placement for a Kindle that was, perhaps to some tastes, pretty in pink.

Later in 2009, Kindle-packing King fans were disappointed when King’s bestseller Under the Dome was one of the first books to be "windowed," i.e., withheld in ebook format to give its hardcover launch a better chance. Today’s announcement of the Kindle availability of Blockade Billy, five weeks ahead of the book’s scheduled May 25 hardcover release, suggests an instance of reverse windowing that is unlikely to be upsetting to Kindle readers.

It appears that King has bifurcated or trifurcated his negotiation of book contracts for Blockade Billy, and published the Kindle edition under his own Storyville imprint, for which the only other Kindle publication has been Ur. Amazon has, at this point, discounted Blockade Billy‘s hardcover pre-order price by 33% from $14.99 to $10.11, and set a Kindle price of $7.99. Amazon’s product pages for the novella show Storyville as the Kindle-format publisher, no publisher line for the forthcoming hardcover, and Simon & Schuster as the publisher for a forthcoming audio CD release, scheduled for May 25 at a price of $19.99.

In addition to the discounted hardcover, Amazon’s news release and its website reference a limited edition hardcover that may have already sold out at a $25 price from tiny Maryland-based horror publisher Cemetery Dance Publications, with illustrations by Alex McVey.  The product page for the Kindle edition shows that the Kindle’s text-to-speech feature is enabled for Blockade Billy.

Under the Dome, one of the books at the center of a price war between Amazon and some big-box retailers last fall, was widely discounted then to prices below $10 in both its hardcover and ebook formats. Its Kindle edition is currently priced at $16.99 under the agency model, with a hardcover price discounted from $35 to $20 and paperback pre-orders discounted from $19.99 to $13.99 ahead of their July 6 release.

Your humble reporter’s initial research indicates that, as of 9 a.m. April 20, 2010, Blockade Billy is not available in Apple’s iBooks Store. That could change at any time, and Amazon’s news release does not refer to the novella as a Kindle exclusive.
 


However, as long as Blockade Billy effectively remains a Kindle exclusive, not only is it likely to help Amazon sell Kindles but, just as importantly, it is likely that to drive iPad owners to the Kindle for iPad app and increase public awareness that the Kindle Store provides iPad owners with a free catalog-rich, convenient "No Kindle Required" reading environment.

Here’s the guts of today’s news release from Amazon:

—————————————————————————————————————————–

 

Bestselling and Iconic Author Stephen King Publishes New Novella "Blockade Billy," Available in the Kindle Store

 

Kindle customers can now download Stephen King’s "Blockade Billy" and begin reading in under 60 seconds
 
SEATTLE, Apr 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that the new novella by bestselling author Stephen King, "Blockade Billy," is now available in Amazon’s Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) for $7.99. The Kindle Store now includes over 480,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York TimesBestsellersand New Releases. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle, including titles such as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Treasure Island."

"We’re excited to be able to offer our customers Stephen King’s new novella in the Kindle Store, especially after seeing customer enthusiasm for King’s Kindle-exclusive novella ‘UR,’" said Melissa Kirmayer, Director, Kindle Content. "’Blockade Billy,’ a shorter format book with a limited physical print run, is not only a great example of the publishing freedom Kindle allows writers, but also the rich content Kindle customers can find in the Kindle Store."
 

"Blockade Billy" tells the story of William "Blockade Billy" Blakely. He may have been the greatest baseball player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first–and only–player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history. Blockade Billy has a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse… and only Stephen King can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all. Publishers Weekly writes of the book: "As King’s fiction goes . . . a deftly executed suicide squeeze, with sharp spikes hoisted high and aimed at the jugular on the slide home."

The Kindle edition of "Blockade Billy" features both the cover illustration by Glen Orbik and the interior artwork of Alex McVey from the limited-edition hardcover published by Cemetery Dance Publications.

Stephen King has written more than 40 books, including "Misery," "The Green Mile," "Cujo," "IT" and "Carrie." He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bram Stoker Award, O. Henry Award, Horror Guild Award and was the 2003 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

"Kindle is a great way for authors to make different lengths of their writing available and to reach diverse audiences with their work," said Stephen King. "I’m excited to be able to offer ‘Blockade Billy’ in the Kindle Store."
 

Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle. 

—————————————————————————————————————————-

This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily blog.

Virtualbookworm US – Reviewed

by

When I first started researching companies who provide author solutions services some years ago, Virtualbookworm (VBM) was one high on the radar. About four or five years ago, had you dropped ‘self-publishing’ as a keyword into a Google search or visited many self-publishing resources looking for information on self-publishing, you can bet VBW would have been pretty high up there in prominence. Try the same now and you will have to do far more extensive searches before you come across the name, VBM.

 
Instinctively, when I came across VBM a few years ago, I held off reviewing them. In many ways, they should have been in our first batch of reviews in early 2008. Back then, they provided quite an extensive range of services and price-ranges easily reviewed without the need to spend a considerable amount of time looking at what they had to offer. I actually still have a book I ordered from them in 2008 as an example of their physical book product with an intention to doing a review back then. It never happened.
 
Why?
 
For one, their services required a great deal of research and time, due to the wealth of information they provided, as well as the fact I had noticed a considerable slide off the top-notch of choices for self-publishing authors. I do not think a lack of a review did anything to help nor take away from what VBM had to offer self-publishing authors.
 
I know I checked the books the amount of titles they had published on Amazon and it was in the very high hundreds. A couple of years on—I note that it shows 1034 titles. The Virtualbookworm site has been radically redesigned since I looked at it in late 2009, around the time I had planned to look at their services again and do a full review. I actually led with an article in the autumn of 2009 suggesting the review would come in the following few weeks. The reality was every time I started my review of them, I perceived a continual shift in the sands, and felt it pointless to focus on a company struggling to maintain its high-ranking position as an author solutions services, with all the changes of print-on-demand and digital publishing.
 
In some ways, VBW, were a company who had decided to take a trip to some far-off flung island and just sit back and see how things panned out. At least that is what it seemed like; certainly they dropped off the radar for me and a great many other authors regarding usage and feedback I was getting in 2008. In fact, on more than one occasion I checked just to make sure VBW were still in business. We actually ran a poll in that year and the companies most popular with authors were as follows:
 
1. Xlibris
2. Lulu
3. iUniverse
4. Outskirts press
 
Outside of the top four, we had services like Booklocker, Infinity and Authors online in the UK. VBW came in around 8 to 12th, a reasonable enough performance and representation. This was a time when we had less than half the amount of author solutions services we have now, and a time when services like CreateSpace were not offering online distribution beyond Amazon and companies like Dog Ear Publishing and Mill City were only finding their feet in the self-publishing world.
 
So, who and where are Virtualbookworm now?
 

“Then he [writer and founder] discovered self publishing and the endless opportunities it presented. However, such a venture requires countless hours of research of printers, proofreaders, artists, etc. And after publication, even more time is consumed trying to market the book.

So, Virtualbookworm.com was established as a "clearinghouse" for authors, since it offers virtually everything under one roof. Although we now charge setup and design fees, those costs are kept to a minimum so as to cover all expenses. And, as with "traditional" publishers, we carefully review each manuscript and only offer contracts to authors who truly have exceptional manuscripts. We don’t print garbage, and we want our authors to proudly say they were published by Virtualbookworm. If we accept your book for publication, you can rest assured that it will be sold next to other quality books, and not just work that had enough money behind it. And, you’ll receive some of the best royalties in the business!”

I have never once thought that a writer founding a service for self-publishing is entirely a sound foundation, unless of course that writer has had considerable experience in all the critical areas of the industry—sales, marketing, editing and production under the umbrella of a traditional publisher. I also do not think authors of any savvy will take to the description of VBW as being a ‘clearing house’ when it first was established.

I asked who and where is Virtual Bookworm? The short answer is Bobby Bernshausen and Texas. Bernshausen is listed as the owner and president of Virtual Bookworm, founded in 2000. In light of the above quote from the Virtual bookworm site, I found it odd I could not find a single book by Bernshausen, or that I could not unearth any sources of business experience in publishing or marketing. I am sure it could be there—somewhere—but I certainly did not find it. For a writer running a business offering publishing services; I’m more alarmed that I cannot find a book by Bernshausen on Amazon or anywhere—not even on VBW!
 
To be fair, we do not ask the same question of the CEO of Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan or Penguin, but author solutions services are a different kettle of fish, and they are often founded on the reasons Bernshausen describes above—for me—it remains curious, but something I am happy to put to bed. Bernshausen has being doing this gig for more than ten years and it should have brought him a wealth of experience in a changing industry. He founded and presided over a company which was one of the earliest to dip its toes into print on demand publishing.
 
The 2010 incarnation of the VBW homepage features one advertised book and large glaring icons about their services. This is a step backwards for VBW—the intent is clear—whatever they were, they are certainly driven now by attracting authors and present little for what their output might offer readers.
 

“What makes Virtualbookworm.com different than other POD providers?

Well, first off, we won’t print garbage. You must follow the submission and genre guidelines … and each manuscript must be reviewed and approved before we will accept your order. If we do accept the order, we will give you as much personalized support as necessary until the project is complete. This means your book won’t be selling on the same site as a book that has tons of errors just because the other author had enough cash! Plus, Virtualbookworm.com is one of the most established POD publishers in the industry, having been in business since 2000.”

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/about.html

 

VBW are based in Texas—their address is a post-office box—but they do offer a support centre driven by email and a ‘ticket’ formula to answer questions on their services and the process of publication. Beyond reading their FAQ’s, this is their preferred method of query and contact.
 

“Have a question or comment? Need help ordering or with the publishing section? First check our searchable Knowledge Base for Frequently Asked Questions. If you didn’t find the answer to your question, please click the link below to go to our Support Center, which is on a separate server to save resources. After registering, you can submit a trouble ticket (which can be used for any question, etc.) or check the status of a ticket.”

VBW do offer a downloadable publishing guide to their services, an online bookstore, a latest release link at the bottom of their web pages, and a recently launched author community, which turns out to be essentially links to their Facebook and Twitter pages. However, for the first real time, we get a glimpse at a number of published titles with links directly to their online bookstore.

From memory, their previous web design worked better. It was more classical and stylish, and the present graphic rendition is glary with its blue background and white text. The links provide a FAQ, information pages, as well as details of their publishing packages.
 
VBM offer a bespoke service for authors wishing to truly self-publish by submitting their own completed files and can avail of design, edit and print services in preparing their book. Alternatively, they have a number of flexible packages.
 

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/ebook.html
 


The following are included in all packages:
 
Softcover available on white or creme paper.
Page counts as low as 48 and many as 828 pages.
Electronic proof
ISBN assignment (author can provide own ISBN and imprint at no additional charge)
Copyright application kit
Book page on our website
Barcode
15 free internal graphics/images (must be submitted to specs)
Data Backup
Full Distribution
Drop Shipment
Book registration through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books in Print and many others
50% royalties of net receipts (Approximately 30-35% of cover price on paperbacks sold through us!)
Monthly Sales Report
Author may purchase first order of his/her softcover edition for 50% off list price (subsequent orders at least 30% off list, but discount increases with larger orders)
 
VBW list their packages in levels as to what is included. Each package includes the above basics as well as what is listed below for each individual level.
 
Level A: Includes all of the above services and one free book. The package includes a generic cover with an author photo and bio on the back. (The author may supply artwork for the cover as well, as long as the work is 300dpi or greater)
Level A Price: $360

Level B: Includes all of the basic services, Library of Congress number and three free books.
Level B Price: $440

Level C: Includes all of the basic services, Library of Congress number, five free books and professional cover.
Level C Price: $495

Level D: Includes all of the Level C services plus professional editing package (for up to 75,000 words).
Level D Price: $790

Level E: Includes all of Level D services, plus Bronze Marketing Package.
Level E Price: $1,110

Level F: Includes all of Level D services and the Silver Marketing Package.
Level F Price: $1,390

Level G: Includes all of Level D services and the Gold Marketing Package.
Level G Price: $1,950
 
If there is one thing I can remember from looking at VBW services over the years, it is the flexibility, but complexity of the packages and levels on offer, and again, I feel the latest incarnation of presented options for a self-publishing author is detailed, but somewhat confusing. Even for me—familiar with looking at many different companies and services—this really is a handful for any author even with a basic understanding of what it is they are looking for their self-publishing endeavours.
 
The above level packages have approximately an additional 10% increase if you are intending publishing a hardcover (packages range from $430 to $2100) and about 15% if you want a combination of paperback and hardcover (packages range from $590 to $2225). I am not going to represent all the levels for hardback and combination (paperback & hardback editions) packages here for the purposes of this review.
 
The marketing packages are included in the more advanced level packages, but can be purchased separately and are listed below.
 
Bronze Marketing Package: $400 (if purchased separately). Includes professional press release, 100 four-color business cards, and a personal storefront for two years!

Silver Marketing Package: $700 (if purchased separately). With this package, we will write a press release and send it to over 200 media outlets and send review copies of your book to at least 10 major reviewers. You will also get a Personal Storefront for two years and 100 four-color business cards.

Gold Marketing Package: $1,300 (if purchased separately). This package includes a professional press release written and distributed to over 200 media outlets, review copies of your book sent to at least 15 major reviewers, a Personal Storefront for two years, placement in Ingram’s Advance Magazine, 500 four-color post cards, 500 business cards and 500 2X6" book markers.
 
VBW also offer colour (illustrated packages ranging from $625 to $2095) and an ebook package is $99 or $65 if purchased with a print option.
 

The standard 200 page paperback from VBW retails at $13.95, about average for a trade paperback, with the average hardback ranging from $20 to $26 for retail purchase. VBW offers its authors a 50% discount on the listed retail price on the first order of paperbacks placed with them, and 30% thereafter. For hardback books, the author gets a 35% discount on their first order and 30% thereafter. Even at the initial 50% discount on an order of paperbacks, the author will have to fork out $7 ($6.97) per copy on a book costing $3.90 to print as listed by Lightning Source. That is almost an 80% mark up from print cost, and by my reckoning, way too much. I can live with an author solutions service marking up a modest profit take per unit of say 20%, but 80% is just out of the park.
 
VBW pay royalties at 50% of net receipts to their authors. To clarify, net is after the print and retailers discount have been subtracted.
 

“How much of a discount does the distributor and/or bookstores receive?

This is a tough question since it depends on a number of factors. We usually list our books at a 30-35% discount. This keeps the retail price low and is acceptable by Amazon and the other "big boys." However, some small bookstores want a 40-50% discount. Since it is your bottom line that is affected (royalties), we let YOU decide on the discount (however higher discounts will raise the retail price).”

Taking the retailer discount at its lowest, for books sold through distribution networks like Amazon, the breakdown is as follows:

$13.95 – the retail cost of a book
-$3.90 – the cost of printing the book
-$4.18 – the discount given to the retailer
$5.87 – the net receipt to the publisher and author
 
VBW splits this net receipt 50/50 giving an equal share of $2.93. While it is not the worst deal I have seen from an author solutions service, it is by no means the best deal you will find out there. Royalties are paid on a monthly basis (others only pay quarterly or every six months) but the amount must exceed $25 before it is payable. This is a common clause and pretty much standard fare from most author solutions services. I have never really understood why some author solutions services choose to pay royalties on a monthly basis—it is just not necessary when most authors are simply not going to earn enough royalties through sales to warrant the time, effort and expense for a publisher to administrate this process. It is another sign of an author solutions service stretching itself in an area where there is no mutual benefit for anybody.
 
Distribution is the standard online global listing and availability offered by most author solutions services using print on demand. However, VBW do offer a $100 warehousing option, meaning they will keep a very small inventory of books onsite to fulfil and ship same day orders to customers who purchase directly from the VBW online store. A returns program for books is also offered to authors as an option. This is a service VBW ran for quite some time and they were one of the earliest author solutions services to do so. It was withdrawn for a period of time due to it being ‘abused’ and has been recently reintroduced again. I have previously expressed my opinions on publishers and author solutions services using POD for print providing these returns programs to the retail sector. I will say again, I believe it is admirable some companies want to make POD produced books acceptable to the book retail trade, but ultimately, it is entirely at odds with an on-demand print and fulfilment model of business. A returns program would be of real use and sense if author solutions services offered it in conjunction with a committed short print run of books.
 
VBW will provide a ‘true self-publishing’ service to authors. In other words, they will facilitate an author with their own block of ISBN’s and their own imprint and whatever bespoke services are required for a book project.
 

“Since some authors think true self publishing is when you do all of the setup, etc. yourself, we’ve decided to just put all of the services under one roof (er, website) for you. Instead of having to search for a cover designer, layout artist, editor, printer, etc., you can simply do it all here. Just let us know which services you need and how many copies you would like in your original order and we will send you an estimate.


Please note that you will be sent the master files of everything, so you can always go elsewhere to get the books printed if you prefer.”

VBW offer their authors a non-exclusive contract, though it should be noted they require exclusive distribution rights for ebooks—meaning you cannot make your ebook for sale outside of VBW’s distribution channels. The contract contains a cancellation term of 90 days for the author, but this is subject to a $50 fee before the author can move their book to another provider/publisher. The term of the contract is for two years.

I cannot fault VBW for aiming high and they offer a vast range of services and options many large competitors do not offer. I like VBW and what they do. The overall approach is sound and ten years as an author solutions service shows they understand the business and are doing a lot right. But sometimes when you offer so much in one place as a small operation, things can spread out a little thin in other areas. The lower priced packages promise a great deal, even offering editing and book cover design. I cannot help feeling it is a considerable stretch for an author solutions service to make a $600 to $800 package include a full cover design and an edit—no matter how basic the edit—at all the listed prices. At look through the VBW store reveals a mix of strong cover art and some pretty basic stuff.
 
While the VBW book retail prices are competitive, I would find it hard to live with an author solutions service taking an almost 80% mark up on print costs when I was the one forking out the cash for the set-up. But, that is just me, and if an author can get over that, then VBW has a great deal to offer an author and a multitude of options. This is going to particularly work against VBW if an author is already considering submitting print ready files. Frankly, those authors would be far wiser going with CreateSpace or directly with Lightning Source who can do their distribution and fulfilment.
 
The web page provided for authors is a very basic static listing for a book and I think it reflects the limitations of VBW’s own website design, which is flat and lacks any real dynamics, not to mention books. The contract on offer is reasonable, though there is one or two terms in there I would be uneasy about in the event of a dispute.
 
Contract – Paragraph one.
 

“The Author also agrees that he/she will hold Virtualbookworm.com, its distributors, and any retailer harmless against any recovery or penalty arising out of his/her breach of this warranty. Author will also reimburse Virtualbookworm.com Publishing for all court costs and legal fees incurred.”

Heck, I don’t fancy paying VBW’s court costs even when I’ve won a judgement! I am not sure how this term would play out with a judge in a court of law, but technically, I have signed the contract and I am bound by its terms.

I stated at the beginning of this review that VBW were one of the earliest author solutions services I looked at several years ago. Back then VBW were very much part of the big six of options for an author considering self-publishing, but with authors becoming more savvy, business orientated and discerning, and with the rise in DIY services like CreateSpace and the direct option of going with Lightning Source, VBW seem less elevated on the map of self-publishing solutions. I have thought long and hard about what precisely it is about VBW that has changed over the past few years. Maybe it is my own self-imposed nostalgia or the fact that this publishing business as a whole changes and develops month to month, but VBW isn’t like I use to remember it.
 
Reviewing VBW this week was like going back to a wonderful restaurant you remember from a few years back. The food is still good, the staff pleasant, and the prices ok, though the decor has changed a little, but overall, the experience is not quite the same. The restaurant is still were it always was in the street, but many of the other buildings have changed. If you weren’t absolutely sure that’s where it was, you’d has passed it by without noticing it.
 
VBW need to go one of two ways. Either they need to strip away the complex levels in their packages and have no more than four basic packages with a list of add-on services, or they need to offer all services as tailored bespoke options for an author’s book project. Attempting to do all things for all authors in the way they are creates an illusion of an operation working on a grand scale and dilutes VBW’s ability to stress what their core strength is or should now be—working one on one with authors on a book project.
 
Sometimes in life, less can be a great deal more.

This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney’s POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing site.

Book Sales On Ebay

by

About a year an a half ago after I self published, I decided to try selling my book, Christmas Traditions – An Amish Love Story, on Ebay Fixed Price at an affordable price and see what would happen. Buyers pay the postage. I pay 15 cents to list for a week and $1.50 more when the book sold. At first, sales were slow. I’m an unknown author. Buyers weren’t sure they should take a chance on me. What helped my sales was the fact I had written an Amish story. That’s why out of fifteen books, I picked the Amish story to sell on ebay. My reasoning was 15 cents a week to advertise my book wasn’t too much to pay in a market that has as many viewers as Ebay does. Even if the book didn’t sell, I was getting noticed as an author.

There are a lot of Amish book consumers around the world. I’ve hit on a market with fewer authors to buy from. I hear quite often from readers that they have read all the Amish books in the stores. They don’t buy anything but Amish stories and eagerly await the latest book from any of the Amish authors, including mine now.

I had a few customers that have continued to email me just to visit. At least one recommended my book to someone else so I’m sure there are others talking about my books now. By the time my next Amish book, A Promise Is A Promise – Nurse Hal Among The Amish, was for sale, I’d saved a long list of emails from my ebay customers that bought Christmas Traditions. I sent a notice to each of them before I put the book up for sale on ebay. The customers that choose to buy from me directly saved me Ebay’s selling fee. After I put the book on ebay, sales continued to grow. By the time my next Amish book, The Rainbow’s End – Nurse Hal Among The Amish, was ready to go, I had an even longer customer list. As a way to increase sales, I asked each buyer to send me a review of the book if they had time. The reviews I immediately put on Ebay in my book descriptions so other buyers could see them.

My customer service approach has been each time I sold a book to a new customer I put a list of all 17 of my books with a synopsis of each in with the book. Each book is signed. Extra postage is refunded. After the first book when the customer buys another book, I slip one of my business cards in the book as a reminder. I wrap each book to protect it from getting scuffed in the mail before I package it and stick on a colorful sticker that matches the holiday or season. For a follow up, I email the buyer to announce the book is on the way so watch for it. If the book gets lost in the mail, I will send another book to replace it. Last year, I found out paying for insurance to the postal service doesn’t do me any good. I lost $250 worth of books between two shipments. The last one of those shipments was insured. I filed a claim, and I’ve never been reimbursed.

Ebay asks for feedback about the service between seller and buyers. My reviews from buyers have all been good. The sales are handled through Paypal and happened fast most of the time. So I started using my feedback review to advertise. After saying this was a speedy transaction, I write Thanks for buying my Amish book Enjoy Author Fay Risner. This review got me in google search at least once that I know about. I hadn’t expected that but I knew that first time buyers would be checking out my sales reputation. The reviews from buyers does help with sales when they leave remarks like they liked the book, and I do a good job of packaging.

A few months back, I decided to try my mystery series, Amazing Gracie Mysteries – five books, on ebay now that I am better known. These books are cozy mysteries about a Miss Marple character in Iowa. As I’ve been told, the story line is now known as Geezer books. At first, sales weren’t going so hot. I had to do something to get some interest for the books. I had three of my proof books in the series I hadn’t given away to relatives. I put them in the ebay auction for 99 cents. Starting at 99 cents meant that I didn’t have to pay an insertion fee, but ebay doesn’t mention they expect to have the seller fill in the buy it now fee box. For that the charge is 5 cents. Then if the books sold the charge is 9 percent. No one bid on the books the first week so this last week I listed in Fixed Price for $4.00. All three books sold to the same person. I sent a reminder email that I still have two more in the series priced at $10.00 if that person wants to continue reading those books. The proof books were ones that I would never have sold otherwise so I think I put them to good use.

The buyer of the mysteries had bought one of my Amish books the week before at the Fixed Price, a proof for $4.00. I wondered why she let such a bargain on the four mystery books go from 99 cents to $4.00. When I found the notes on the ebay invoices I knew why. One of the notes was a practical reason. The buyer wrote, "I am ordering several of your books, hopefully to save on postage. I love your books." (The more books in the package the cheaper the postage is so I do refund any postage I don’t use. Out of almost $10.00 ebay took for postage on all four books, I used $3.16.) After that the buyer’s notes were, "I am so excited to find another author that I know I am going to love all your books." "Can’t wait to get this one too. Thanks so much."

What happened to spark the added sales to this buyer. The buyer waited until she read the Amish book. When she found out she liked that book, she was positive she was going to like the mystery books, because she likes the way I write.

This last week I added a couple more of my books to ebay. Both books are in genres that are popular for sales – a children’s book – My Children Are More Precious Than Gold and a Civil War story based on true facts – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia- A Civil War Saga In Vernon County, Mo. Besides the proof books, I had a box of books I’d read over the winter laying around. I put those used books on Ebay a few at a time for 99 cents in the auction. Am I making money at this? No not a cent by the time I deliver the used book to the post office, but in each sale is a list of my books and how to buy them. Selling the books I no longer have a use for is just another way to promote my own books.

Reenlisting the books at the end of seven days took time when I had 8 books, and now I’m adding two more. So I listed the books until I decide to cancel them, and that is for a month at a time at 50 cents. I save 10 cents in that four weeks each time, and the time it took to list the books is cut down.

If you take the time to go to my online bookstore, http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com, and look at my customer site map, you’ll see I’ve sold to customers all over the United States and three International in this last sixteen months. I haven’t had one bad review yet from buyers and plenty of return emails that want me to hurry up and get the next book done. I’m happy with the way my book sales have progressed. I’m getting somewhere with my books. After waiting years to get discovered by a publisher or agent, I’d say this is an improvement that can only get better.

Indie Bookstores & Indie Publishers—On The Same Page?

by

Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (BAIPA). It’s been a year that I’ve been going to the meetings, and I look forward to them.

We had the usual hour of Q & A from those who chose to show up at 9:00 a.m., orchestrated by BAIPA President Pete Masterson. The questions ran from how to get on a bestseller list to printing with Createspace, Lulu and Lightning Source. We talked Smashwords, ISBNs, Baker & Taylor and the transition from Print on Demand to offset production. The usual.

Entering the second hour the room began to fill. The subject announced was “Indie Bookstores + Indie Publishers: Working Together for Success” and the speakers were Calvin Crosby of Books, Inc. and Bill Petrocelli of Book Passage.

I don’t know Books, Inc. very well, since they have no stores in Marin county. They do have eleven stores in other parts of the Bay Area, and their website shows a tremendous number of events they hold with noted authors.

Book Passage bills itself as the Bay Area’s Liveliest Bookstore (two stores) and you’ll get no argument from me. In the next few weeks they will play host to Anthony Bourdain, Elizabeth George, Isabelle Allende, Annie Lamott and Anna Getty, while also hosting dozens of author events, readings and workshops, over 700 events a year.

Great Expectations

At BAIPA meetings we have a time where each person gets up and gives their “elevator speech,” a 30-second pitch on who they are and what they do. People also use these to announce personal victories and milestones.

Over the course of the year I’ve alternately heard stories of how difficult it was to get a book event at Book Passage or, having gotten the event, how exciting it was to have an event there. Back and forth. Complaints about the process, excitement over the product.

Of course the one thing most self-publishers want more than anything else is to see their books in bookstores. This is what eludes many self-publishers, who rely on Amazon and other online retailers who have no need for gatekeeping, since they stock—at least virtually—everything. Amazon, along with digital printing and print on demand distribution, has really made self-publishing what it is today.

Ah, but the bookstores. The lure of being on an equal footing with every other publisher out there—that’s the holy grail to a certain segment of self-publishers. And what better place, what more suitable place, what place will they be understood better, than at the independent bookstores? It seems to the new self-publisher like a match made in heaven.

So the idea of “Indies” working together has a special potency to it. The meeting was very well attended, the room overfull. I would guess sixty or seventy avid self-publishers were ready to hear the talk, learn how we could work together. Here are some notes from the presentation, including some responses to impromptu questions:

  • Independent publishing is growing while big publishing is waning
  • Stores work with self-publishers on a consignment basis, and will shelve books in a “special section” for local authors and publishers, giving them 2 or 3 months shelf time
  • Yes, they do charge a fee for having an event, and this is to cover promotion costs including $30,000 – 40,000 every two months for catalog mailings and email promotion.
  • We have one of the biggest communities of local authors, publishers, and booksellers and we should try to utilize that community
  • Distribution and publicity are most difficult for self-publishers
  • They are optimistic about the survival of indie bookstores, because they adapt to changes in the market
  • Discounters like Borders (which has flirted with bankruptcy for nearly a year) are in trouble, not indies
  • Some of the biggest events have been run by self-published authors, who bring a considerable following into the store

What’s Missing From This Picture?

One question that was asked repeatedly was “What do we do to set up an event or put books into your store?” We received a sort of narrative in response, about how authors who had events were long-time customers, who would naturally, over time, become friends with one or more people “behind the register” so that, when a book came into the equation, they would have a friend to talk to.

It was suggested that authors have a promotion plan, that they be organized, two pieces of good advice. It was also suggested that authors have a blog, a website for their book and to build their community. And, Bill Petrocelli pointed out, make sure there’s no link to Amazon on your website, because that will kill any chance you had of doing something with the store.

I Think I’m on the Wrong Page

It was around this time I started to grow uncomfortable with the whole presentation. There was a question from an indie publisher, who had earlier announced the publication of his 36th book, about why he had to keep going into the stores year after year to remind the buyers to stock his consignment books.

Of course, selling on consignment is not a long-term business model, and the publisher was advised to find some way to get into the bookstore’s database by finding a wholesaler or distributor. Of course, he would have to be prepared to give a discount up to 70%.

This also seemed odd, since the consignment model was the one being pitched at the beginning of the meeting. They agreed that books from Lightning Source with 55% discount, fully returnable, would be acceptable to them, but that iUniverse books were a problem because they had to buy them retail and they were non-returnable.

In a subsequent question it turned out that this information was incorrect, and an iUniverse author in the audience confirmed that they sold on regular, returnable wholesale terms.

Another questioner had trouble containing the outrage he felt because he had to pay to have an event at the bookstore, to which he would be bringing his own new customers, on top of which they wanted him to not sell on Amazon.

Surprisingly, in response Bill Petrocelli launched into an energetic attack on Amazon in what I can only call “Axis of Evil”-type language. I remember the word “pariah” came up, and there was discussion about Amazon’s tactics and their refusal to pay sales tax.

And I can understand some of this. Bookstores are businesses. As Bill pointed out, it costs a lot of money to pay for all the activities they put on. Both Book Passage and Books, Inc. are treasures of our community and centers where people gather to celebrate books, authors and writing. And certainly the internet and the companies it has spawned have decimated some bricks-and-mortar businesses, that’s obvious.

But at the same time I found this the most disappointing meeting of BAIPA I’ve been to. Despite the promise of the billing, this is what we didn’t receive:

  • Any organized process to make contact with the bookstores. Even all these years into the self-publishing “revolution,” neither of these stores seems to have any formal process of any kind for dealing with one-book self-publishers.
  • Confirmation that booksellers have any idea what self-publishers are all about. The complete tone-deafness of the attitude toward Amazon was startling. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Amazon to self-publishers.
  • A hint that there was any interest on the part of the indie booksellers in actually working together. The presentation contained no suggestions, no ideas, no call to action, no request for input from publishers, and no direction. Some people prepare slides, handouts, talking points for their presentations to this group. Bill and Calvin didn’t even stand up. They sat at a table the whole time, which means they basically didn’t make contact with most of the people in the room.

Still Waiting

I was left with the distinct impression that the indie bookstores may not have much common ground with indie publishers and self-publishers, no matter what we’d like to think. Book Passage and Books, Inc. are full of books from major publishers. Smaller presses are certainly well represented, and there’s a definite effort to reach out to the local community in many ways.

But if I were managing one of those stores, would I want an endless stream of self-publishers coming in, trying to get shelf space, trying to have author events? What would I need them for? They just create more work for the bookstore, and the possibility of bad feelings.

Concessions can be made for long-time customers, or for those who “know someone” at the store. If all the self-publishers were subtracted from the equation, it’s likely the bookstores would be just as happy. Can you imagine just doing the accounting for 70 publishers, each of whom publishes 1 book, for which there is likely to be little demand?

I think we’re kidding ourselves if we think the bookstores have any common ground with self-publishers and small indie presses. Individual staff members may have a love of books that extends to the books made by these publishers, but that’s not the same thing.

I shop at Book Passage, and I bet most of the people in that room shop at these stores, and the stores know that. Self-publishers as a group are activist, passionate, independent-minded people. Otherwise they wouldn’t have taken on the enormous job of publishing—and trying to sell—their books.

The dislocations in the publishing industry brought about by digitization and hastened by the speed of technological development and the urgency of the recession, are severe. We’re faced with serious challenges, like

  • Finding new ways to deliver content,
  • Finding new ways to identify and satisfy discrete audiences,
  • Discovering how different media can be used together while maintaining the integrity of the book
  • Redefining what it means to “publish,” to “author” and to “distribute” content

Right now everyone concerned with these issues has a stake in working together, of being on the same page when it comes to the changes we will have to negotiate. I hope some of us end up on the same page. What do you think?

Takeaway: There are many challenges for the self-publisher, and establishing relationships with bookstores—even indie bookstores—remains one of the most problematic.

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer site.

How Are You Juggling All of Those Writing Projects?

by

For many writers, this becomes a very tough question to answer. In many ways, the balancing act hasn’t been going well. It is a given that writers must be able to work on more than one project at a time. Yet not all can do this without encountering some difficulties with keeping it all organized while also being efficient. Perhaps, you may be one of the few who have a system that works and you manage to keep your productivity high. The question the rest of us have is this one: How do you do it?

A Little Common Sense

Of course, it’s clear that no matter if you are writing fiction or non-fiction, taken a commissioned project or you’re currently on spec, you know that each one of these writing projects needs careful attention in order to be successful. What sort of attention you can pay each will largely depend on whether you have to wade through mounds of books, notes, and drafted pages in order to work on a given project. The less organized you are with your projects and scheduling the more problems and repeat work you will encounter. 
 
Even with the use of computers and electronic filing, there are no guarantees that you will be making your freelance work easier to do. In many cases, you may find that there will be more confusion than before since you’ll have to keep both electronic files and hard copy pages or notes straight. Organization and streamlining are essential if you wish to retain control over your workflow.
 
A Few Ideas
 
In reality, your methods of organizing a writing project will probably vary some depending on the type of work you’re doing or even the markets themselves. (There are some niche markets that require a very specific process so bear that in mind.) Let’s look at it this way. If you produce a variety of material such as articles, stories, and other forms of copy for multiple publications, you may want to start by categorizing your ideas for each market. If this is the case, what do you do then? Well, for some of you, it might help to put things into separate notebooks or folders on the computer. Regardless of what you choose to do, you should always keep things separate and in its place. 
 
If you’re only working on a handful – perhaps one or two publications – you may want to take a slightly different approach. You are still separating or classifying your ideas, but you are including detailed categories to help you micromanage your writing projects on a different level. You may be separating ideas based on genre, subject matter, length, and by sub-category.
 
 Filing
 
Now, you probably already do this, but it is good to say a few words about your filing system. Most of us arrange our projects in separate project files on the computer. (Although, some writers still keep a spiral bound notebook or an equivalent hard copy version.) Files allow you to keep everything in its place. A good idea all around if you want to be organized. The method will vary with each writer. (I have both hard copy files in a cabinet and tons of files saved on CD and flash drive.)
 
About The Schedule
 
This may be where a form of productivity software may come in handy. Many writers benefit from keeping a set schedule for each of their writing projects. The schedule has one clear-cut benefit that no writer should ignore. If adhered to, a standardized schedule ensures that you will give each project its fair share of time and attention during the course of the day or week. Another type of record kept by some freelancers is one based on their output. By recording the number of words produced or the number of hours worked can help you determine how long similar future projects will take to complete. (Don’t forget to take advantage of to-do lists since these tools can help cut out nonessential information by providing a concise listing of each project’s requirements or deadlines.)
 
In Closing…
 
I think it’s safe to say that you may now have a little more insight into what it takes to juggle all of those writing projects. If you are still trying to get things into focus so you can start making schedules and categorizing ideas, then you may be on the right track. I wish all of you the best of luck in your own writing endeavors. I hope you wish me the same luck. Please feel free to add your own advice and tips to those mentioned here. Catch you later!
 

This is a cross-posting from Shaun C. Kilgore‘s site.

How To Promote Your Writing With Technology

by

This post, from C. Patrick Shulze, originally appeared on his Author of "Born to be Brothers" blog on 4/14/10.

The world of writing is about to roll over in the grave it doesn’t know it’s in yet. The writing industry is on fire and undergoing cataclysmic alterations to its landscape due to the advancement of technology. And everyone involved with writing, agents, publishers, book stores, readers and those who do the writing, are caught up in this technological conflagration.

[In] my opinion the landscape that emerges from this titanic struggle will look very different than the one with which we are now familiar. The industry will survive, no doubt, but in a vastly altered state from the one we see today. As to those who do the writing, I believe they will become business people who write, rather than writers who do business. In fact, this alteration has already begun in earnest as even traditionally published authors are now required to do their own marketing.

With this in mind, it becomes evident writers should embrace this technology if they wish to enhance their marketing efforts. Here’s some thoughts I garnered on how to do that.

As a writer, you should consider using podcasting and videocasting to promote your novel. Even Simon and Schuster said this was necessary. Here’s why.

First and foremost, people spend a lot of their time on the Internet which is already transportable. Even more, the future of the Internet is video. In fact, video search is growing in popularity at an astonishing speed.

If you’ve paid attention to how to market books in today’s environment, you know the new attitude toward sales is all about the human connection. This link builds trust between people and trust is a critical element in marketing. With this in mind, video is about as personal as we can get without being there.

The best aspect of video is it’s demographics. From Elites TV, you’ll find video demographics are “53% male/47% female. 55% urban with median income of $74K. Nearly 70 percent are college educated, 47% are married, median age is 33, 71 percent are employed.”

Pretty strong marketing core, wouldn’t you say? And best of all, these are the people who buy the books.
 

Read the rest of the post, which includes tips and resources for getting started with video, on C. Patrick Shulze‘s Author of "Born to be Brothers" blog.

Interview With Victoria Mixon

by
Occasionally I have the good fortune of running into wonderful people in the writing business who have important things to say to the writing community. [Victoria Mixon is one of them]. Her blog is called A. Victoria Mixon, Editor, at http://victoriamixon.com. She also maintains an online magazine, the Art & Craft of Fiction, at http://victoriamixon.com/art-and-craft-of-fiction-magazine.

Victoria, there are several types of editors. Where would you place yourself?

Oh, I’m one of the good ones. I’m just kidding. I do all three types: developmental, line, and copy editing. However, the copy editing is a very minor aspect of my work. I sort of throw that in with the line editing because it would make no sense to craft someone’s language into the best possible form and then leave the grammatical and punctuation errors. Besides, typos escape everyone. They’re like mice in the house. You need multiple readers to catch them all.
 
I have a lot of background in organizing nonfiction for publication. That’s developmental work of a very straight-forward kind. I help nonfiction writers find the principles that form their topics and create an intuitive flow from overview to tasks, with clear, logical Table of Contents, index, and reference sections.
 
Developmentally, I do a lot of work with fiction writers on shaping their novels—the characters and plots. We talk a lot about what the writer intends, what they have in mind for their characters, what they sense around the edges, what’s still out of their line of vision but waiting to be taken into account. We talk a HUGE amount about proper structure and inevitable cause-&-effect, how it’s all about the reader’s experience. I analyze the plots of what they send me and return them with outlines showing what’s there and what’s yet to be envisioned.
 
It’s very fun. Writers get so excited about working with someone who takes their novels as seriously as they do and even pushes them beyond what they thought were their limits. It really gives them the validation they crave. They take themselves more seriously as writers after we’ve worked together. I hear that a lot—they understand for the first time what it is to be an author, to write on a professional level.
 
I do the line editing on my own. Again—it’s an aspect of the work that I love. There’s nothing like a few decades of pulling your hair out trying to polish your own writing to make you seriously appreciate objectivity. A writer simply can’t line edit their own work. God knows I’ve tried. You can be the most brilliant storyteller in the world, and you will not see the bumps and inconsistencies in your own language.
 
I love being able to bring out what the writer means with their language, particularly in fiction—to eliminate everything extraneous and reveal the snap and sparkle and flow that’s really there. Writers typically clutch their hearts and reel back in their seats when they see the number of Track Changes—I always tell them to read it through the first time with Track Changes turned off—and one of my best writers admitted recently that when she first saw all the edits I’d made she thought she’d been scammed. But as soon as they recover from the surprise of learning how much can be trimmed, they fall in love with their words the way they’ve always dreamed of.

I understand your blog focuses primarily on fiction issues. What are three areas that seem to be common trouble spots for writers? Are there any others worth mentioning?
I’d say not delving deeply enough into your story. Particularly in this day and age, the hustle to get that book written and fired off to agents is so pressing that writers typically underestimate how much is really in the story they want to tell. They get hung up on throwing those words on the page and moving on. It’s only when we go through their manuscripts together step-by-step and ask, “Why this? Why that? What was your thinking here? What did you intend there? What’s going on elsewhere while this is happening?” that they realize how deep and complex and multifaceted their imaginary worlds are. The words—they’re just the surface refraction of what’s really going on.
 
Not educating yourself on proper grammar and punctuation is a fairly common problem. If you’re a writer, you have to learn how to write. Writers need to learn the proper punctuation for dialog, what you can and cannot use for dialog tags, where to put commas (not between a subject and its verb!), what a pluperfect is and where to use it and where to go straight for the perfect. It’s all part of the craft.
 
The biggest issue, though, is probably not understanding just how much work goes into writing a book. Books are big. Books are enormous. Seventy thousand words is a whole LOT of words. And it all has to be revised and reworked over and over again. Are you prepared for that kind of workload? Can you appreciate the different tasks for what they are and pace yourself, without pressure to finish, so it’s a joy to work on—maybe not every day or every page—but so your motivation for doing all this work is the sheer pleasure of being a writer? Because that’s the payoff. And it’s an enormous payoff. But an aspiring writer needs to understand the magnitude of what they’re attempting.
 
There are all kinds of very particular trouble spots writers can fall into, and I try to give readers and potential clients as much information as I can through my blog and magazine, so we can focus specifically on the unique issues in their individual manuscripts when we work together. Wordiness—that’s a biggie. Everyone, even the most consummate artist, uses more words than they need to. Shaky plot structure, insufficient character development, missing motivation, loose threads, awkward writing—all of these are things I see in every manuscript, even (sometimes especially) those that have been through heavy peer critiques and workshops. Yet most of them are things a writer should be able to avoid in the first place if they’re properly educated. And when they’ve handled that on their own, then we have room to go really deep with the editing.
What advice would you give to new writers starting from scratch?
Have fun with it. Don’t go looking for a whole lot of advice. There’s way too much out there, and the bad stuff conflicts with the good. It will give you a massive headache and make you hate everything you write. And it will steer you wrong. Find people whose voices and common sense you trust and listen to only them.
 
Write what you want to write when you want to write it, and let yourself love what happens when you translate what you see in your mind’s eye into words. That’s what it’s all about.
 
Also: DON’T READ CRAP. I can’t emphasize this enough. Read really good literature. Read Raymond Chandler and J.D. Salinger for atmosphere, Hemingway for clarity, Flannery O’Connor for humor and insight, Emily Bronte for passion, Ivy Compton-Burnett for dialog, Isak Denisen for symbolism and depth, Paul Bowles for beauty of language. Analyze mystery writers like Erle Stanley Gardner for plot—even if you don’t write mysteries, they’ll teach you about plot twists and foreshadowing and writing toward the climax (not the resolution!). Read Henry James if you’ve got a strong heart and head, because he knew absolutely everything about language and plot, he just made it really hard to follow his sentences. All of that stuff was edited by real professionals, so it’s almost word-perfect. When in doubt, read Shakespeare.
 
Especially in the early stages, bad writing will work its way into your language without you even noticing, and it will take years, if not decades, to work it back out again. Don’t let bad writers poison your well.
 
What advice would you give to writers who have been out of the business for a long time and are considering trying it again?
Remember why you did it in the first place and why you want to go back. Writing fiction is a great high. It’s a joy to throw yourself into. It makes you feel more alive.
 
Don’t read too much contemporary fiction, and when you do be very aware of where the language fails to live up to the standards of earlier decades. A lot of contemporary writers do well with plot. That’s what sells. The language, though, isn’t always line edited properly anymore, and you can find yourself reading really glib, cliche stuff in otherwise good novels.
 
Take advantage of your experience. You’ve already done a certain amount of splashing around in the water. Set yourself the task now of apprenticing to the craft. Learn proper structure. Learn techniques. Take the work seriously. You will never master it—nobody ever masters it before they die. All you can do is dedicate yourself to it to the best of your ability and bow to the extraordinary power of words.
 
Are there any traps out there waiting for naïve, unsuspecting writers?
You bet. Bad advice. Lots of expensive bad advice. An entire industry has grown up around milking aspiring writers of their cash. Especially now that the Internet allows anyone who’s ever survived a critique group to hang out their shingle, writers really have to do their due diligence before hiring anybody for anything. The cheap editors are copy editors and guessers. You really need to understand that.
 
Yes, a writer has to spend money for really excellent, specific advice. Yes, it will be totally and absolutely worth it. . .IF they make sure they know what they’re going to get before they pay for it!
Writers need to look for those people who speak intelligently, thoughtfully, and with humanity and stick with them. Don’t listen to the high-pressure marketers—they have nothing to offer that you can’t get more reasonably and, generally, free from someone else. For heaven’s sake, don’t spend money on them. They’re high-pressure for a reason. Don’t choose your help by how cheap it is—you’ll get what you pay for. And watch out for dangling carrots. Learn to recognize them when you see them. It’s an epidemic these days.
 
The publishing industry is in serious flux right now. Parts of it are in serious trouble. You’ll hear a lot of advice about how to deal with that in the traditional arena. Most of it is wild guesses, but an inexperienced writer can’t tell because sometimes it comes from big names. Don’t worry too much about it. Things will eventually shake down. And you’ll still be here when it does. Your novel will still be here. Don’t be in a hurry—I mean, where are you going to go?
Should writers consider self-publishing and why?
Heck, yes! This is a fascinating time to be writing and publishing on the rogue wave. Indie publishing is really cutting edge. Writers need to just be sure to 1) hire a really good editor, and 2) hire a really good designer. They should also seriously consider hiring a really good marketer/promoter if they have any doubts about their own ability to keep up with the work on that end.
 
The self-publishing world is full to overflowing right now with early draft stuff that’s been published, in all innocence, by people who don’t know how to write books. It’s a waste of their money and a crying shame.
 
I think that will clear up as the whole indie publishing industry becomes more stabilized and it becomes more common knowledge that a writer needs professional help in order to do a professional job. Every single word a journalist writes is edited. Always has been. The great authors you love were edited. You don’t try to bind your books yourself. Don’t try to edit them, either, or design their covers (unless you already are a designer; but even an editor can’t edit their own work).
 
Writers just need to accept the simple facts of publishing, and once a good number of them do I think we’re going to see a jaw-dropping amount of incredible literature hitting the airwaves. I see it in my clients’ work right now. I think it’s going to alter our perceptions of literature itself. Truly—it’s an amazing time to be alive.
 
I understand you’re in the process of producing a book titled: THE ART & CRAFT OF FICTION: A PRACTITIONER’S MANUAL. Who is it directed toward and how should it be used?
Oh, gosh, thanks for asking about that! Yes. I’ve collected all the advice I was putting out on my blog for the benefit of my fiction clients and readers last year and crafted it into an overall manual on creating fiction.
 
It was really hard to organize. I’d just been throwing stuff out there. But once I got the organizational principles down, I realized this book is something aspiring writers can keep on their desks as they work—it’s not only inspirational stuff to kick-start their writing day, and not only textbook information on what constitutes good writing, but both, and organized in a way that allows them to either read it for the sheer enjoyment of the conversation or to use it as reference when they come up against a stonewall with their work. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback over the past year from clients and readers, telling me what helps them the most. That’s been enlightening and, really, very gratifying.
 
My book is literally a manual. I want writers to be able to talk intelligently about the fundamentals that editors understand—developmental issues, line issues, copy issues. Hook, development, climax. Character motivation. Point-of-view techniques and what they achieve. Sentence parsing. Everything. I want writers to know what revision is, what to expect from it, how to do it. And I want them to know what it means to be a writer and what it doesn’t mean. There’s so much hype floating around out there. I’m not going to lie to them or feed them false hopes, inflate their egos. Now more than ever, they need someone to deal with them honestly. I want them to be able to stand with their feet on the ground. There’s also a section at the end on surviving the special despair of writing. We all know about it—it’s part of the craft—we might as well help each other deal with it.
 
I want writers, most of all, to feel welcomed into the world of serious writing. There are lots and lots of good books out there that will teach you helpful things. But, so far as I know, only Anne Lamott has said, “Come, walk with me. I’ll be funny and smart and use profanity. Let’s chat.” I’m not too profane—not on the page, anyway. But I do want to offer that warmth, that feeling of welcome. Walk with me, talk with me. There are so many things to learn. It’s a nearly infinite art. The love of crafting fiction is a wonderful glue between human beings.
 
I also have pretty high standards for what I consider good fiction. I’d like to see standards go back up. If it works properly, my book should become dog-eared and worn out just hanging around a writer’s desk. That’s my dream—to see my book smudged and coffee-stained! Maybe people can send me pictures.
 
Do you have any other ideas for writer books?
By me? I’ll tell you, I’m still writing posts on the craft of fiction on my magazine, two or three a week. A few I wrote because I found gaps in the organization of my book that I needed to fill. But the bulk of them will probably become Volume II next year. I love thinking about this craft. I love writing about it. I love helping writers. I could keep this up indefinitely.
 
I’ve also gotten advice recently on creating additional material to bundle with the book. Readers love that. They’re so hungry for real guidance, real concrete methods for developing their skills and understanding. So I’ll be putting together workbooks on craft, specific hands-on exercises focused on specific areas, stuff to you can really sink your teeth into, for the hardcore serious writer.
 
Of course, there are canonical books out there, which I mention throughout mine so writers can gain a sense of the help that’s available to them. Flannery O’Connor’s MYSTERY AND MANNERS—possibly the single greatest book on fiction ever. John Gardner’s ON BECOMING A NOVELIST. Syd Field’s SCREENPLAY. Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD. Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Bernard DeVoto, Eudora Welty, Annie Dillard, Jerome Stern, Natalie Goldberg, Jack Bickman, Dave King and Renni Browne, Donald Maass, Raymond Chandler. . .I have three packed shelves of books on writing over my desk, but I’m downstairs by the fire right now, so I’m just reeling these off the top of my head. I can get you a complete list if you’d like. I’m probably forgetting somebody brilliant.

How should people contact you for editorial work?
I try to make it easy! There are Contact buttons at the top of my website and magazine. There’s an email link on my Services page and another on my About page. Nothing’s more frustrating that finding a blogger—particularly an editor—you’d really like to contact and not being able to find their contact info. Leave a message in my comments. I’ll get it!

This is a reprint from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

The End Is Near: Four Ways To End A Short Story

by

"This is the end. My only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end"
– from "The End" by The Doors, 1967

In my humble opinion, that song is one of the truly great rock songs. The mixture of pleasure and pain it describes applies to more than just lost love and killers and death. Sometimes when we writers are working on a story, finishing the story can be bittersweet, or even just plain bitter. And sometimes we get near the end and we have no idea how to finish it, especially with a short story. In this post, I’ve outlined four possible ways to effectively end a short story.

There are more ways to end a story other than these four of course. And there is often overlap between the different ways. But if you are stuck, a look at these may help unstick you. Even if you aren’t stuck, they may give you some ideas. Anyway, here they are:

The Twist Ending

Add something a bit unexpected right near the end. If you have listened to or read Edward G. Talbot, you’ll know that we like to end stories this way. It works for many genres. The one thing you have to be careful about is not making it too unexpected so the reader feels like you just threw it in there. The reader needs to feel that it’s consistent with everything else in the story

There are so many ways to implement this concept. You see it all the time in suspense movies. Jeffrey Deaver is a master of this with his thrillers. A really good example is in James Patterson’s second Alex Cross thriller, Kiss The Girls. The killer turns out to be the FBI agent who was working the case. It’s just possible enough that the reader buys it and feels a chill at the betrayal.

The twist can also be subtle. My friend and fellow podcaster Scott Roche recently released an e-book short story called Bitter Release about a soldier trapped in a cave with only memories and a case of absinthe. Roche gives us a subtle twist literally in the last line that ties the surreal feel of the story together very effectively. I can’t say more without spoiling the story.

The Resolving Action

In action, mystery, thriller, and suspense genres, this is probably the most common ending. The line between a resolving action and a twist ending can be blurry, but a resolving action to my mind tends to be more expected, more like a traditional climax. This can be a major action like a bombing or a killing, or it can be something simple that punctuates the story.

A good example is in Tom Clancy’s "Debt of Honor", where a plane crashes into a joint session of Congress, making Jack Ryan the President. That’s one serious resolving action. Or in our own audiobook New World Orders we resolve the chase that has at one level been going on for the entire book. I won’t give the details, but it definitely ends with a Resolving Action.

On the other hand, you could have a story where a woman has killed an abusive husband and is struggling with guilt and the story could end with some symbolic gesture regarding letting go of it. That is a bit of a cliche, but it wouldn’t seem like it if done right. You get the idea.

The "Story" ends itself

This is very common in literary stories. Ask yourself, "What is the story I am telling the reader?" Stephen King in his book on writing talks about knowing what the story is as the key to all good writing. What is it on a high level that is interesting enough to make people keep reading? The story itself may have a built-in ending.

Seth Harwood uses this technique to perfection in his short story collection A Long Way From Disney. In story after story he has characters or feelings or some tension (or all three) to tell you about, and they end when he has finished telling you that particular story.

Another example is the movie Titanic. There are basically two stories, one how all the characters react to the sinking/tragedy and the other is how that tragedy impacts Jack and Rose, who have fallen in love. The movie ends with Rose casting the necklace away (a resolving action), but it could have simply ended with Rose finishing her tale and the viewers really understanding how that brief time impacted the whole rest of her life.

So once you understand what the story is you are telling, the ending may simply present itself. In some ways it can be easier in a short story because there are usually not very many threads in the story. The flash story that Jason wrote for our Intercast podcast – "Alive" – ends with the main character jumping out of a building. That is no surprise to readers, as the whole story builds to it. You could call it a resolving action, but in this case it’s more of a simple completion of the only place the story could have gone. James Melzer’s ebook story PTS does something similar. Nothing in that story is a surprise, and it ends with action, but again, it’s the only place the story could have gone.

The Intentionally Ambiguous ending

I like this one, but in my opinion it is the hardest to pull off. The problem is that most of the time the reader wants resolution. In a longer work, it’s possible to leave questions unanswered for a sequel, but that’s not the same thing – that’s not really the ending. It generally only works when the "story" is the tension or some interpaly between characters, and the resolution doesn’t matter.

I tried it in my short story "Transition" in the Intercast Audiobook, where the tension between outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations and several different middle eastern governments led to a climax where one group in the U.S. government was about to launch a nuclear strike and another was trying to stop them. The story is about how close we could get to nuclear holocaust with only one or two overt acts leading to it – whether nuclear holocaust actually occurs or not is irrelevant to the story. I actually got a couple of extremely positive comments about how I did this, but I also got one negative for not telling people exactly what happened. This kind of ending will not please everyone, but I do think it can be done effectively.

There are many other ways to end a story, or variations on the above techniques. Tell me about some of your favorites in the comments.

This is a cross-posting from the Edward G. Talbot site.

Promote Your Book on Twitter – Top 10 Strategies for Authors

by

Twitter is a great way to promote a book while you build your networks and expert reputation. Here are ten ways authors can harness the power of Twitter:

1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. You can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, offer tips and discuss other books that you enjoy.

2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you’re listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.

3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.

4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, teleseminars, and book launches.

5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner. See this post for tips on creating a Twitter contest.

6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it’s amazing how helpful folks are. You can also ask for feedback on your book title, cover design or website.

7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products.  Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.

8. Promote a book or other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches. Keep promotional and self-serving tweets to 10% to 20% of your total posts.

9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it’s a great place to learn more about the publishing industry and meet partners who can help you promote a book.

10. Keep in touch when you’re on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.

Have fun! It’s fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship while you promote a book.

Excerpted from Twitter Guide for Authors, by book marketing coach Dana Lynn Smith. For more tips, visit her book marketing blog and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.

 

Do We Know The Author?

by

When we buy a book, we think we’re going to like it because the title, synopsis or cover attracts our interest. I’d be the first to admit that I don’t often read a book that makes me stop to wonder about what the author is like. Questions like, what does the author look like, where does the author live and did life experiences give the author ideas for the book? An author’s brief biography is in the back of the book and sometimes a picture, but that short paragraph is not nearly enough to get to know the author.

The more famous authors become, the more we learn about them, because of the publicity they generate. Lesser known authors just starting out, especially self published ones like me, are strangers and will pretty much stay that way unless the author reaches out to them. I don’t hire publicity, but I do use the internet, my local newspapers and book signing. I have the idea that if I make myself known to my readers, providing they like me and my books, the more books I might sell. So far this reasoning seems to be working.

Some readers get to know about me through my blogs where I tell about my rural upbringing. If I didn’t tell the readers, would they know that westerns were the books of choice in my house. How I grew up is reflected in my writing. Living near a small, Iowa town helps me use characters and stories that are true to life in my mystery series.
The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary (a western – ISBN 1438221576) and Amazing Gracie Mystery Series – Neighbor Watchers- Book One (ISBN 148246072).

I often talk about my personal experiences that I have turned into books such as being a caregiver for my parents. I volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Association and for eight years was facilitator of an Alzheimer’s support group. Because of that experience, three of my books deal with Alzheimer’s disease. People who are working their way through that dreadful disease need to know that I went through it before I wrote the books. I want the readers to understand I know how they feel so they can identify with me and my family. See Open A Window (ISBN 14382444991), Hello Alzheimers Good Bye Dad (ISBN 1438278276) and Floating Feathers Of Yesterdays – a three act play (ISBN 1438250932).

For the readers that haven’t found my websites or read my biography, I put my bio and contact information in with the books I sell along with a business card. If they are curious enough to check my information out on my bookstore website, they will learn about me in my bio, blog and book event pictures as well as the titles and prices of my books.

I advertise my bookstore website as much as possible and sell my books on other sites like Amazon. When I sell my books, I send an email to the buyers right after I mail the books to alert them to watch for their books. The mail system has lost some of my books. I do replace them at my expense. Knowing that media mail takes 2 – 9 days, I try to mail a book in a day or two so that the wait doesn’t seem so long for the buyer. I want that speedy delivery to please them. If the book does get lost, I replace it. I have developed a trust with the buyers. They find they can depend on my honesty to replace a lost or damaged book. They need to know I will do the right things to work up my customer base and show them I have an honest business. Maybe the books won’t turn out to be to their liking, but it will be everything it has been advertised to be.

In my email I always say if the buyers have time, I’d liked to hear what they think of the book. Those reviews come in handy to put on sites where I sell books. Giving my email replies a personal touch has made me friends with people from around the United States and lately in other countries. They continued to keep in touch. These buyers wait for word from me that my next book is ready to buy. Some of the anxious ones email several times to ask how long until my next book is finished. I always reply with a response about how the book is coming and reassure them that I’ll let them know as soon as I have the book for sale. Right now, I have a long list of emails to send a notice once I’ve published the book which should be ready this summer. What I have done so far may not have made me a household word yet, but what I’m doing works for me. Maybe some day.

This is a reprint from Fay Risner’s Booksbyfay blog.

Believing In The Dream

by

 It’s probably every writer’s dream, secretly or otherwise, to make a living as a freelancer. Unfortunately, the reality seldom meets the dream and most of us either suffer until we die or, more likely, until we get a “real job.” Enter the idea of self-publishing.

 
Many Independent Authors plunge into self-publishing as a way to make more money sooner, or so they believe until reality hits them like a freight train. “The average number of sales for a POD book is 500…total, and I often wonder if that is an exaggeration,” writes Jeremy Robinson in POD People. That is a very disheartening fact, one we each have to come to terms with in our own way. A great number of would-be authors give up at this point. Most begin to at least doubt the possibility of reaching their heart’s desire. But does that mean the dream has to die?
 
Absolutely not. If it’s truly your dream, then it is imperative to keep working toward it. That means marketing by using both old ways (basic word-of-mouth and PR) and new ways (using social media such as facebook and twitter). There are a lot of great resources out there to aid the Independent Author in his or her marketing strategies. (I’ve mentioned a few in earlier posts, just take a look at the posts in the marketing category.)
 
Marketing, however, is not the only thing the freelancer needs to be concerned about. You are your own boss, which means you are the one in charge of the finances. That does not mean debt and financial struggle is inevitable anymore than having a 9-to-5 job means financial security. It does mean doing extra planning. As Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan say in The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: The Only Personal Finance System for People with Not-So-Regular Jobs “Having your financial house in order brings peace of mind. It also puts you in a better position to survive and thrive, no matter what the economic climate.”

I am no financial wiz, but as an up and coming Independent Author I’ve come to realize that money matters — a lot. Like others of you struggling to “make it” as a writer, I want to succeed, to see my dream become a reality. I refuse to buy into the myth, as Joseph and Denise call it, of the “struggling artist.” I don’t just believe in the possibility. I know it exists and I will be following the financial roadsigns of success on The Road to Writing.

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Road To Writing blog.

Squabble flares for Shakespeare's birthday

by

WITH Shakespeare’s birthday celebrations April 23, Sony has a timely ebook mystery, “The killing of Hamlet”. It is both amazing and amusing that 400 years after his death the world still debates whether the Bard of Avon ever existed.

Read and quoted by everybody, William Shakespeare remains an enigma. Oh yes the plays exist, the poems enthral but who really wrote them? This year the argument is fiercer than ever after a Declaration of  Reasonable Doubt by experts. Other experts leap to defend the smalltown hick from Stratford who is reputed to have created England’s richest literature.

In the midst of this storm, author Ann Morven has crafted a modern whodunit novel around the Shakespeare authorship debate. Her fiction could be closer to the truth than all the learned assertions! Sony gives a free sample. To read the novel on other devices, simply google the title.

Always a puzzle to me is why the bloke from Stratford apparently wrote nothing before the age of 29, after which he was instantly brilliant and prolific. There is a lot more troubling the doubters however. Insults fly, historical papers are flourished like battle flags, poets sigh, actors denounce, language gurus gag and lawyers gabble from either fort. No matter which camp you believe, it all adds up to a sturdy noise for readers to enjoy on the Web.

Here are just a few of the claims debunking the playwright’s traditional identity:

1. If a man from Stratford was widely known as William "Shakespeare", why spell his name Shakspere in his will?

2. Nobody, including literary contemporaries, ever recognised Mr Shakspere of Stratford as a writer during his lifetime. When he died in 1616, no one seemed to notice.

3. There is no contemporaneous evidence that William Shakspere of Stratford was even a professional writer, much less that he was the great William Shakespeare.

4. Mr Shakspere of Stratford grew up in an illiterate rural household. Both his parents witnessed documents with a mark.

5. Books were expensive and difficult to obtain. No book that Mr Shakspere owned, or that is known to have been in his possession, has ever been found.

6. Not one play, not one poem, not one letter in Mr Shakspere’s own hand has ever been found. And yet, he divided his time between London and Stratford, a situation conducive to correspondence.

7. His detailed will, in which he famously left his wife "my second best bed”, contains no clearly Shakespearean turn of phrase and mentions no books, plays, poems, or literary effects.

8. Almost uniquely among Elizabethan poets, Shakespeare remained silent following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

9. There is no record he ever staged a play in Stratford, or that any of its residents viewed him as a poet.

10. While pouring out his heart in the Sonnets, why did he not once mention the death of his 11-year-old son?

Over the years, for diverse reasons, names suggested as the real Shakespeare include Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Derby, Ben Jonson; Thomas Middleton and even Queen Elizabeth herself!

Whoever created the literary magic, I simply say Happy Birthday mate, and thanks for all the entertainment.

 

The Killing of Hamlet, by Ann Morven (Sony ebooks $6.99).

http://sony-ebook-samples.com/sample/7014/the-killing-of-hamlet

 

 

The Successful Publisher

by

I’ve been thinking about the previous post, and it seems to me the same advice holds for anyone looking to get into publishing — whether as a self-published author, or as a publisher of other people’s works on any scale. If you don’t define success yourself, the miserable soulless scorekeepers are going to define it by how much money you’re making, or whether or not you’re still in business.

The recent dissolution of HarperStudio is not simply a case in point, it’s a case that demonstrates the utterly bankrupt way the miserable soulless scorekeepers go about their business. What happened at HarperStudio, as far as I can tell, is that the guy who ran the place — Bob Miller — decided to go do something else. In a corporate context that’s the equivalent of leaving your wallet on the street, because there are always other factions in a corporation that want to play with the money in your budget. But is that the same thing as failing?
 
Seriously: how many people inside HarperCollins were rooting for HarperStudio, and how many were hoping it would fail? If you worked for the mothership, did you really want someone proving that a stripped-down version of what you were doing could actually work? Or did you want it to blow up, with or without your own finger on the trigger? I have no idea if Bob Miller was a hampered visionary or bumbling idiot, but that’s really the point. Does anyone know what was happening behind the scenes? Does anyone know what the money flow was like, and how HarperStudio’s subsidiary status with HarperCollins affected its ability to be successful?
 
What if Bob Miller had not decided to leave HarperStudio? What if he was still there, doing his job, but the company was badly in the red? Would that be a success story? Better yet, what if he was still doing his job, but he was embezzling money from the company and cheating authors at the same time? From the outside it would look like he was still in business, and thus not a failure — at least until he got caught. Is HarperStudio a failure because it tried to play fair? Are vanity presses that prey on naive customers demonstrating a better business model? (I’ll leave you to guess what the miserable soulless scorekeepers think.)
 
And what about the absurdity in all this? Anyone who thinks that HarperStudio failed in an objective sense has to reconcile that view with a larger context in which publishing is a wounded, dying animal that has little chance of continuing in its current form. If you really want to say that HarperStudio failed, isn’t the entire industry failing by that score? How many other companies are being held together by their leadership, while the bottom line bleeds out through an artery shredded by the internet? Isn’t there general agreement even now that the big publishers are playing for time in their dealings with Apple and Amazon, and their imposition of the agency model? Is there anyone who can point to a model that’s going to be an unbridled success a year from now? Five years? Ten? Are you shaking your head?
 
Publishers at every level need to define why they’re doing what they’re doing. Leaving that task to the miserable soulless scorekeepers will always result in the inevitable charge that you’re a failure, because that’s the point of keeping score. If you care about books or writers or publishing, defining that passion will prevent others from defining it for you. You won’t ever be able to get them to admit it, of course, but that’s not the goal. The goal is saving your sanity, if not your soul.

This is a reprint from Mark Barrett‘s Ditchwalk.